


Bane

by compos_dementis



Category: Hetalia: Axis Powers
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-02-03
Updated: 2010-02-03
Packaged: 2017-10-07 00:21:36
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 729
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/59322
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/compos_dementis/pseuds/compos_dementis
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"Why are you fighting this war, petit Amerique?"</p>
            </blockquote>





	Bane

France didn’t quite know what he was doing here, if he was truthful. Mostly it was just to fight Arthur – any excuse to fight Arthur, he would take it – and to hurt Arthur, to break Arthur, to make him sorry for all he’d taken from the French Empire.

 

But in reality… he wasn’t sure why he’d really agreed to help this little brat revolt.

 

The colony couldn’t have been more than eleven, at the very most, and yet he was tall as a full-grown nation. The last time France had seen America was when England had brought him to visit his brother, and that was a while ago, yes, but not that long; America had had to look up to see him properly, the top of that blond head barely up to the bottom of France’s chest, and he’d known his place then too, hadn’t tried to argue for rights that didn’t exist.

 

Now…

 

Well, now America was as tall as himself, perhaps even a bit taller, and he’d broadened from that boyish stature as well, shoulders nice and square and attractive and—

 

Eleven. The boy was ten or eleven in human terms, and France would not get carried away.

 

America was cleaning out his gun – a shoddy weapon, they all had shoddy weapons, but still an efficient one – when France walked over to him. The long blue coat looked good on the boy, he would admit, and America looked up at him and asked, “What?”

 

“Why are you fighting this war with Angleterre?” He couldn’t keep himself from asking, but America didn’t seem to care. He just went back to cleaning his weapon, holding it like security. Hadn’t Arthur been the one to teach him to fire it?

 

“I’m going to show him that I’m big now. I’m just as big as he is, and he still treats me like I’m a little kid.” _That’s because you are a little kid, _France thought, but didn’t say anything aloud. “He taxes me until I’m bankrupt. Takes advantage of me. He’s nothing but a greedy, stuck-up, snobby Empire, and I am tired of being British. It’s about time I was really American. I want… I want to be able to be big too.”

 

France sat beside him on the log he’d been sitting on, and he took the gun from him before the boy could shoot his face off, and cleaned it for him. “He only had your best interests at heart, you know. Taxes… it is something Empires must do. I am sure I have left him in enough debt to last a few dozen lifetimes, with my… my Napoleon.” The name hurt to say, even now. “Are you sure this is what you want?”

 

America was quiet for a long time. He took the gun back when France finished, held it to his chest like a poppet, looked at the muddy ground. “He missed it, France.” His voice was quiet enough to be almost inaudible. “I grew up, and… he wasn’t there. He left me when I was small, and I was a grown-up when he came back, and he just got upset with me for growing too fast. All the growing pains, and… aches, and my voice changing, I didn’t know what was happening, because he wasn’t there to tell me.”

 

There was a pause, and France watched him as he continued, “And then the taxes. He told me that if I’m so big, I should have enough money to pay all of them off. But… he taxed the tea, France! The tea! I can’t pay all that, and my people want… the colonists, the Separatists and Puritans, they want…” He quieted again. “They want independence. And so do I. I’m tired of being told what to do like I’m small.”

 

After a long moment, France nodded. “D’accord. If you want independence, I will help you get it.” He stood again. “You… are a wonder, America. It is too bad I had not colonized you when I had the opportunity.” A look of distaste crossed America’s face, but France just leaned down and placed a kiss right on his mouth, a quick one, and pulled away again, leaving him there.

 

Independence. Right.

 

The boy was in over his head, but France couldn’t help but feel that there was going to be quite a fight ahead of them.

 


End file.
